Health | WPN World People News

With the youngest of the baby boomers hitting 65 by 2029, the number of people with visual impairment or blindness in the United States is expected to double to more than 8 million by 2050, according to projections based on the most recent census data and from studies funded by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. Another 16.4 million Americans are expected to have difficulty seeing due to correctable refractive errors such as myopia (nearsightedness) or hyperopia (farsightedness) that can be fixed with glasses, contacts or surgery.

New WHO recommendations aim to help health workers provide better care to the more than 200 million girls and women worldwide living with female genital mutilation.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that can carry Zika as well as Dengue and Chikungunya viruses.

Everyone has heard of common germs like E.coli or influenza, but what about Streptobacillus moniliformis or Capnocytophaga? If not treated quickly, both can kill people within days. But they are so rare that doctors and labs probably have never seen them and may mistake them for more common diseases like meningitis. Enter MicrobeNet, an innovative online tool designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that, since 2013, has helped laboratorians and doctors get the information they need to accurately diagnose causes of disease faster and save lives.

An early-stage HIV vaccine clinical trial in South Africa has determined that an investigational vaccine regimen is safe and generates comparable immune responses to those reported in a landmark 2009 study showing that a vaccine can protect people from HIV infection. Consequently, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and its partners have decided to advance the experimental HIV vaccine regimen into a large clinical trial. This new study, called HVTN 702, is designed to determine whether the regimen is safe, tolerable and effective at preventing HIV infection among South African adults. The trial is slated to begin in November 2016, pending regulatory approval.

Advances in HIV/AIDS research have given us the opportunity to transform the lives of those living with HIV while providing highly effective methods of preventing the infection. This progress has strengthened optimism for achieving a durable end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. With an estimated two million new HIV infections occurring worldwide annually, however, controlling and ultimately ensuring a durable end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic also will likely require a safe and effective vaccine.